5 Things I've learned over the years as a Business Designer

Although I'm a Socio-Economist by Education. Business Design, structures, and Product design have been my passion and driver for years. I've worked in many businesses over the years and pretty much the only thing that tied them together is that they all sucked. I wanted to give perspective, a unique perspective to business owners on how they could change their businesses to be more efficient, fair, and overall equitable for all involved. I've learned a lot by walking the fringes of the business world, in start-ups and pseudo-corporate businesses. So I want to imbue what advice I can on y'all fine folks who might be designers, engineers, business owners, employees, or just generally interested in this kind of thing.

1. Don't be a hard-ass

No one will listen to someone who only values the ideas that they will come up with. You have to be open to listening to people because the more opinions and perspectives you have, the more accessible the service or product you are designing/selling will be, expanding the range and creating more profits. If you are selling something where the main guidance was one person's views, the market is small and narrow. So listen to people who come from a different Political view, Social Classes, Education status', Races, Genders, and anything else that is unique about them.

2. Design for the disabled and re-enable the abled

If you are designing a product or service, don't assume the person is able-bodied. Always come at it from the perspective that the person is disabled in some way. This goes from prototyping software, hardware, services, or full products. Always work from a baseline of someone who is Disabled, assume that everyone on the planet is deaf, blind, physically disabled, have strength or grip problems. Because then you have created something that covers a lot of bases. And sure, it might cost money to do it, but you have to spend it to make it. Would you rather create something that is accessible and well thought out, or releases something half-assed and spend 10 years pouring dumb money into something you could have gotten right the first time?

Even if your target demographic or market is able-bodied people, Disabled people will find an alternative use for anything that Able-bodied people use. So again, there's no harm in starting from the frame of a Disabled person. If you create a product or service that can be used by someone who is deaf, partially sighted, uses a cane, and has arthritis in their hands. Then you have created something that for able-bodied people is incredibly easy to use, and something for disabled people that is incredibly easy.

3. If you treat your workers well, they'll treat you well

I don't mean "well" as a subjective thing, the CEO whose purse strings control the budget doesn't tend to have a "good" grasp on the objective needs of their employees. Ask your employees what their standard for good wages is, phase it in, bring it in fully. If you treat them well, give them a wage floor that covers their basic needs and gives them a chance to live stress-free. Then they will make sure your business thrives and will make sacrifices when the Economy tanks because they want the business they love to stick around because it pays so well.

4. Sometimes thinking outside the box isn't enough

Sometimes you have to chuck the box away and start afresh. There is being realistic, and then there is being extremely-risk averse to the point there is no real difference between you and the competitor. If you are truly working on something new, something the market has never seen before, there is literally nothing like it. Then sure, a bit of conservative optimism might help, but if you are trying to create a workplace and product that will rise above the competitors and create a long-lasting business with dedicated customers and employees. It will reduce the turnover of employees drastically and you will be beating off highly educated, well-experienced potential employees off with a stick.

5. Mental well-being is EVERYTHING

Whether you are a CEO, board member, engineer, customer service rep or anyone else. Your mental health comes first, any employer with their head screwed on has to respect that. What does that mean in practice? If you really need to take a load off and take a break from work, your workplace has to respect that. If you need to get up from the desk and go for a walk, they should respect that. If they don't, then the statistics are not on their side, they will have perfectly good employees dropping like flies even if their wages are good.

You have to give people a breather, it doesn't matter what sector you are in or if you perceive the workload to be quite quiet or minor. The truth is, you will never know what is going on inside someone's head. You will never know what battles someone is facing, their parent could be in hospital, their son could be ill, their best friend may be going down a dark path and that is stressing them out. The facts are you will never know, that 5-10 minute break from work could really help them. Do you want someone who's in the right headspace working or to overwork someone to a point they drop out and you are left without a good employee and 1-3 months of looking for a replacement?